Safari, (n) : An expedition to observe animals in their natural habitat. This site is a 'safari' of international news, development theory, and the natural world. Written by R. Turner Shaw.

The UN plans action in Central Africa

The UN is taking action. Remember the mention that the rebel group M23 may disappear from the news, but the clashes within central Africa will not fade as the coverage does? Here’s proof of such. Although, “as many as 800,000 people have been displaced since the M23 rebel group took up arms against the Kinshasa government last May,” we have only heard about the rebel movement for about a week when the city of Kinshasa was most threatened.

The UN has now taken a stand against the rebel group, and along with 8 confirmed African Presidents it plans to stabilize central Africa. “The UN wants to set up an intervention force to fight rebels fuelling conflict in DR Congo, says a UN official.” There are plans for an intervention force of 2,500 to combat the DRC rebels, but the force still needs to be approved by the UN Security Council. There are also talks of recruiting African soldiers, but Tanzania has been the only nation to volunteer troops so far.

It is for circumstances such as this that the UN takes so much heat from the public concerning conflict. M23 has been around for years, but it was May of 2012 when they regained power and early November when they started seizing major towns and cities again. While conflict has been raging in the DRC for months now, the UN’s call to action has still yet to be approved by the Security Council. Though an international institution such as the UN is without question for the greater benefit of world stability, local conflicts (which usually occur in the developing world), don’t abide by the Security’s Council’s timeline. They usually have drastic effects before action by the institution can be taken. And although we hold national sovereignty above all else in the current global system, lives can be destroyed as bureaucracy gets waded through.